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Judge steps aside in hunting row case
A High Court judge has stepped down from hearing a dispute between huntsmen and animal rights campaigners because of his strongly-worded support for the ban on hunting when he was an MP.
Mr Justice Cranston, as Ross Cranston, Labour MP for Dudley North, had said in a Press release in December 2000 that he welcomed the chance to vote in favour of the Hunting Bill and "consign this brutal practice to the dustbin of history".
Yesterday he was reminded of his words by lawyers for the Crawley and Horsham Hunt in West Sussex.
They said that, while not suggesting the judge would be biased, there might be "an appearance of bias" in the eyes of the public.
The judge, who became Sir Ross Cranston on his appointment to the High Court bench in January this year, said he could not remember the Press release, and added that an MP's vote in favour of a Bill did not necessarily amount to an expression of a passionate personal belief.
He also pointed out that he had taken the Judicial Oath to "do right to all manner of people... without fear or favour, affection or ill will".
But he agreed to withdraw from hearing the case because people might take the view that he was biased in favour of one side in the case.
The judge ordered that the legal costs thrown away in yesterday's abortive hearing, amounting to several thousand pounds, should be paid out of public funds.
The hunt, backed by landowners and supported by the Countryside Alliance and the Masters of Foxhounds Association, is suing the West Sussex Wildlife Protection Group and two activists. The case is being brought under the Protection From Harassment Act.
The hunt says it has more than 100 hours of video footage to prove its argument that the hunt, its supporters and landowners are being subjected to trespass and harassment.
The wildlife group says it has substantial evidence that the hunt has broken the law.
The case is now unlikely to be heard until October.
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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